India is repurposing its COVID-19 contact tracing app and vaccination web site • TechCrunch

India is repurposing its COVID-19 contact-tracing app and vaccination web site to handle different well being considerations within the South Asian nation.

A senior official mentioned Sunday that the Indian authorities is planning to make use of Aarogya Setu because the nation’s standalone well being app.

The app will supply residents the flexibility to e book medical checkup appointments and confirm the registrations with QR codes to keep away from ready in queues at hospitals, RS Sharma, the chief govt of the Nationwide Well being Authority, the physique that oversees implementation of the nation’s flagship public well being scheme, mentioned at a public occasion.

Aarogya Setu, launched in 2020, has amassed over 240 million downloads, he mentioned. The app was initially launched as a “short-term answer to a short lived downside.

Shortly after its launch, Aarogya Setu, which suggests “bridge to well being” in Sanskrit, attracted some considerations from privateness advocates over the app’s monitoring of people. New Delhi dismissed the considerations and mentioned on the time that the so-called flaws have been applied within the app by design. Weeks later, it open sourced the app.

The Indian authorities can also be repurposing its COVID-19 vaccination web site, CoWIN, to serve the nation’s common immunization program.

The revamped website will enable people to find and procure necessary vaccines lined by the nationwide immunization program, together with the polio drops, and try to assist small-scale medical doctors use it as their well being info administration system, mentioned Sharma, who beforehand oversaw the nation’s telecom regulator.

COVID Vaccine Intelligence Community, which is usually referred to as CoWIN, was launched in January final 12 months because the Indian authorities’s platform to maintain a unified file of COVID-19 vaccination.